Malaysia – Penang, George Town and a change of plan.

Penang and George Town were quite a pleasant surprise. Penang is an Island and the town, George Town in part is a UNESCO world heritage site and it had the feel that Malacca lacked, it was not so gentrified, quite authentic and in some areas dilapidated.

This was again an area populated by Peranakan Chinese (refer to the Malacca post) in the past.

We stayed one night in one of the Baba Nyonya houses but we were a bit disappointed we were not in the old part of the building. However the upside was they did some washing for us, because we had been wearing the same things for days!

We wandered into the old town, a mix of colonial and older buildings, then along the jetties which are interesting and places where people still live.

The things above are made of paper and there are these shops everywhere, often near Chinese temples as they are funerary. These items represent what your dead loved one will take with them to the spirit world, they are burned as part of a ceremony. There is even spirit money, cars, food, makeup, jeweller, food and Coca-Cola!

Peckish and hot we wandered into this shop that sold pastry and tea. I chose the paler radish tea (we drank out of the jars) and I was told not to drink while having a period, after reassuring the shop staff that this was not possible now, Tatjana set about translating the Chinese lable and my drink said that it “Balances the liver and turns off the wind”!!!!! Hmm we’ll see!

Ambling along the jetties we saw people fishing and a chap fixing his lobster pots.

The next day we went via the fenicular up about 720 meters to Penang hill. It was cooler than the town. There are some colonial properties and the whole area is very well kept with gardens and planted verges at the start. We stopped first to have an Avocado milkshake which was delicious and very filling. I’ve never had avocado sweet before and I was later to find out there are slightly sweet Avocados.

We walked the Moniot Trail, which was built/cleared by convicts in the 1820’s. Parts of it are wilder. The walk is supposed to take only two hours but for us it was about 3 because we kept stopping to take pictures.

There are butterflies galore here but ,they are impossible to photograph, they just don’t sit still.

I managed to capture the sound of one of the cicadas, it sounds like it’s a bird but it is actually and insect. They have hundreds of sounds. I was desperate to see one stridulating but, I could never see one. We did however see the cast of ones that have molted.

We tried to walk to Tiger Hill but neither of us had quite the right footwear and we were both a bit concerned about snakes so we turned back

Once back down the funicular we were hungry and Tatjana had found this place nearby  with a good rating on Google called “Flame Resturant”. The food was western with a twist. Please see the video below

How this was done I don’t know as there was no ash at all!

After lunch we went to explore yet another temple, I cannot tell you how many pictures I have, it’s a feast for the eyes.

This time it was a Buddhist temple and it was huge.

Here you can pay a small amount for a wish and we both made wishes. Tatjana’s came true immediately, she wished a sick relative to recover and she got confirmation by text as soon as she had placed the ribbon on the pole.

We were meant to be heading to Thailand next but, we’ve made a sudden change and gone to visit one of Tatjana’s friends in Sumatra. It was too good an opportunity to miss as it’s only an hour from Malaysia…..